Tales of Vesperia is a compelling adventure that keeps you playing for hours, and it's one of the best RPGs on the 360.
When it was first released, Tales of Vesperia caused a sell-out of the Xbox 360 in Japan, and it was definitely good enough to cause a sell-out.
The story starts off with Yuri Lowell, a man who tries to track down a blastia (you learn more about them as the story progresses) thief and picks up some friends along the way. The game's plot isn't centered entirely around that, but I don't want to give anything away. The story takes a while to shift into full gear, but when it does, you'll be in for a compelling adventure that's packed with tons of interesting twists. When the game gets to this point, you won't want to stop playing it.
Tales of Vesperia's presentation is laid out nicely. It takes on a nice visual style that integrates anime models with cel-shading, and it has a clean, crisp look. Some of the towns are stunning to look at, but the overworld is somewhat plain. The soundtrack isn't completely memorable, but it's still done very well. The opening theme "Ring a Bell" is undeniably catchy, and Bonnie Pink did a good job with it. The town themes are among the best tracks in the game, due to the fact that they give each town the appropriate atmosphere. The soundtrack also does a good job at emphasizing the dramatic moments, and it really helps bring the story to life.
The storytelling is done with a few different methods. The most common means you'll see is character models conversing with each other via speech bubbles, but there are also skits with character stills (viewed optionally) and anime cutscenes to emphasize the especially important events. The story is indeed dramatic, but it never becomes too sappy or for those who don't play a lot of JRPGs. Storytelling can drag on at times, and some of it isn't entirely necessary, but you'll eventually get used to it. The voice acting is also done well, and cringe-worthy dialogue is in the minority.
Your time in this game will be spent traversing the overworld (which is repetitive until you get air transportation), exploring towns and dungeons, and battling. Exploration is, for the most part, restrictive and uninteresting. The overworld is large enough to explore, but it's very bland. The towns are what you'll want to explore the most because of how large and stunning they look, but you won't be able to explore much of them because they are just large backdrops to give the player the idea that they're in a large city. This isn't necessarily a flaw because it makes your objectives in the towns a lot less tedious to accomplish, but it still would've been nice to explore the large-looking towns a bit more.
The dungeons are fairly well-done and are integrated with some light puzzle solving. The dungeons can actually be interesting to explore because they aren't just bland buildings that you try to rush your way through. The dungeons you'll be going through include ruins of a temple, a ghost ship, an abandoned town, and other places that I won't give away.
The combat is done in real-time, and in the early parts of the game, most battles can be beaten by simple button mashing. Later battles and boss fights require a bit of strategy, and some bosses are actually tough enough to require some grinding if your party is under-leveled. If you're intimidated or underwhelmed by the game's difficulty, you can change it any given moment via the settings.
Just like most RPGs, the characters are a very important part of Tales of Vesperia. You might not like the characters at first, but once you get to know them, you grow to like them, especially when you learn more about their pasts.
Tales of Vesperia is an overall fantastic RPG with a great story, great characters, and the classic Tales gameplay that fans know and love. It's a lengthy adventure, and you can beat it in around 40 hours if you pursue only the main story. If you want to take upon sidequests, then the length respectively increases. If you own an Xbox 360 and like RPGs, then you simply must give this a try. It's by far one of the best RPGs you can find in this generation. It's also one of the most affordable Tales games at the moment, so be sure to get it while its price is low.